Don't Give Up On Us, We Won't Give Up On You
by Tacpebs
Summary: My take on how The Flash Season 2 episode 6 into episode 7 could've been a little bit better. ***Spoiler alert warning inside!***


**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from The Flash, I'm merely playing with the ones from the CW.**

 **Summary: My take on how The Flash Season 2 episode 6 into episode 7 could've been a little bit better. The episode when Zoom breaks The Flash in front of a lot of people and continuing with the episode where Grodd steals Catlin.**

 **Warning: Possibly spoiler alert sounding now. If you haven't seen the episode, I would suggest you don't read this story. Slightly show of violence.**

 **Extra advice: Please be aware that should a person have a seizure, the best you can do is make sure their surrounding is clear of things that can harm them and time the length of the seizure. Please don't try to restrain the person. After the seizure has stopped, immediately turn the person into the recovery position and just talk with them. If it's necessary, call emergency services for help.**

 _"_ _Harrison Wells, You thought you could defeat me with this?" Zoom questioned.  
"I made a mistake." Mr. Wells replied._

 _"_ _Yes, a costly one." Zoom stated._

The others could do nothing but look on as their friend, their hero, was further abused when Zoom stabbed his dirty clawed fingers into Barry's diaphragm. Cisco alone showed any sort of fight when he shot Zoom with the serum that was supposed to slow Zoom down. It merely caught him off guard and forced him to retreat so he could plot each of their demise. Catlin rushed over to Barry's side after seeing that Zoom had indeed fled and pulled her doctor role to the forefront.

 _"_ _Stay with me. Stay with me Barry. Stay with me."_ Catlin said.

"Is he breathing? He doesn't look like he's breathing." Cisco said in a panic.

"Please Barry. Hold on. You have to hold on."

Catlin set about getting Cisco to help her support Barry's neck in a neck brace while she continued to try to stem the bleeding from right above Barry's stomach. It was so hard seeing Barry like this. His back… his back alone was a scary sight to see, but they had to get him fixed up. When Zoom injected Barry with twice the amount of the serum against the one he had received, Catlin seriously questioned whether Barry was going to make it or not. Having gotten him stabilized and as comfortable as he was going to get in a "hospital" bed, Catlin and Cisco finally took a breath of their own. Barry was going to have a battle to fight. Not the added one against Zoom, but internally, mentally.

 _"_ _This is all you! If Barry dies, you die!"_ A very angry Joe West spoke to Dr. Harrison Wells.

Joe wanted nothing more than to put Wells in the ground and wrap Barry in a plastic bubble so he wouldn't have to worry about him as much as he already did. Joe blinked back tears as he looked back at Barry and saw a, literally, broken young man. His boy, his Barry, the one he took care of since he was 11 was fighting for his life. It almost felt like the particle accelerator incident all over again. Where they waited for Barry to wake up from his nine month coma, only this time it was because a very fast "monster" had chosen to do this. Harrison Wells had released this monster into their world, into their lives.

 _"_ _Joe! Barry's vitals have stabilized."_ Catlin called out trying to calm Joe down.

Joe merely shoved Wells against the pole and went to take a walk. He knew he needed to calm down, but they wouldn't even be in this mess if Wells hadn't come (back) into their lives. He needed to call Iris. Tell her what was going on and to explain to her why Barry wasn't going to be home for a while.

"Barry? Barry what are you doing?" Catlin asked as she rushed back beside his bed.

Barry's heart was slowly decreasing in speed and Cisco could see the faint trimmers effecting Barry until he came out in a full blown seizure.

"No! Barry!" Catlin and Cisco fought to hold Barry down, but they needed help.

Joe had gone to cool down and Dr. Wells was nowhere to be found.

"Help! We need some help in here!" Catlin called. "I need to stop these seizures! This is not good for his back! Or his brain. Cisco, you're gonna have to handle him while I run for the medicine to try and stop this."

"I'll try. Just… hurry."

Catlin ran off to get what she needed and quickly returned to Barry's side to administer the medicine. His fit lasted a little longer than a minute, but Catlin was just thankful it stopped. She frowned when she noticed his heart rate was still decreasing away from his normally fast heart rate and she checked to make sure the respirator was still functioning correctly.

'Not again. I don't think I can do this again. Please don't take someone else I love from me.' Iris thought.

She had rushed from the newspaper office as soon as she was able to. Her dad called to let her know what had happened to Barry, but she told him she knew as that she was on her way to S.T.A.R. Labs. Joe met her at the door and hugged her.

"Baby… baby it's bad, but we know Barry is a fighter. Alright? You remember that when you see him." Joe warned.

Iris looked into his eyes and saw that he was barely holding back his own tears. She took a deep breath, wiped her eyes, and nodded her head to indicate that she was ready to face this. The two walked into the building and around to where they usually stood inside the place. Iris froze. She completely just locked up when her eyes landed on a bedridden Barry Allen from the six feet she stood away. Catlin was moving busily around him and Cisco had moved to stay out of her way.

"His heart is failing. I don't understand." Catlin called out in frustration. "I don't know what to do!"

Iris gasped and melted to the floor right there. Joe fell beside her and held onto her in a hug as she cried.

"He can't die Daddy. He can't. Barry's my best friend. I love him too much. Why is he doing this? Why did Zoom do this?!"

"I so sorry Baby." Was all Joe could say.

His own tears falling down his face as he laid his cheek against Iris. Within a few minutes, Barry's heart slowed to the point of stopping and the machines went crazy.

"No Barry! No! You can't do this! Cisco, get the defibrillator. This is not how you go out."

Catlin quickly took the defibrillator from Cisco and used it to get Barry's heart beating again. It took some time, but she managed to get him back. The pair were exhausted by the time they got Barry squared away again.

"I'm gonna go lay down for a while." Catlin said. "Call me if anything happens."

"Yeah, me too." Cisco remarked with a yawn.

Iris moved a chair over near Barry and sat down. She wasn't leaving his side the rest of the night. If she had it her way, she'd stay until he got better, but she had a job to work and she was sure her dad wasn't going to let her be here that long. Joe took residence in another chair near Barry and the two took turns watching over the speedster. Joe got a few calls from work and had to explain why Barry wasn't going to be at work for a while, but he said that Barry had been in a bad car accident.

"You take a few days Joe, but we'll need you back as soon as you feel strong enough to leave him. Take care of him for us. Which hospital is he in? I'm sure a few of the guys and I would like to stop in and see him." Captain Singh asked.

"Thanks Captain. It'll be a while before Barry's back on his feet. I'll be sure to let him know you guys care if…when… when he wakes up." Joe didn't have to fake the tears. "I'll keep you posted. Thanks again."

Joe hung up and sighed. Barry just has to get through this. He has to. It was hard going, but thankfully it had only been a few weeks when Barry started stirring.

 _"_ _Hey, I think he's waking up."_

Cisco, his every loving self, jumped up from his position in front of his computer and ran into the room, Catlin hot on his heels.

 _"_ _Barry? Barry, can you hear me?"_

 _"_ _Hey"_ Barry called softly.

He was still slightly out of it, but that was probably the amazing drugs Catlin managed to put in his system. Barry got the gist of what had happened to him while he was out and Cisco patted his legs as a form of support. Barry frowned in confusion and attempted to sit up, up both Catlin and Cisco weren't taking any chances.

"I…I can't feel my legs." Barry revealed as he tried to sit up more.

His back protected the arch and Barry cried out at the pressure he felt. It wasn't really pain, he was on the good stuff, but it still was a warning that he shouldn't move in such a way just yet. Catlin explain in more doctor jargon that Barry was going to need a bit of time yet to heal and that he'd be back on his feet before he knew it. Barry was a little skeptical at first, but who better to know about his body limitations than Catlin. A few more weeks went by and Barry found himself up and relearning to walk with a cane. He was doing fairly well and soon found himself surrounded by loved ones as he attempted his first steps without a cane. Joe stood close by as he took his first few steps. His mind drew him in for a second and he relieved the moment Zoom broke his back which caused Barry to misstep and his back to seize up in pain.

 _"_ _I can't do it right now, alright?"_ Barry claimed as he sought out the comfort and familiarity of the wheelchair that once belonged to the fake Dr. Wells.

He questioned how much longer it was going to take before he was fully healed and remarked upon the fact that he was still having some trouble breathing. Catlin explained that it was normal for someone with a spinal injury and Barry took a few minutes to catch his breath after his back spasm. Joe mentioned that he was doing really well, but he didn't feel like he was making much progress. It was later on in the day when Barry found himself once again trying to get back to his normal self. He was on Cisco's version on a treadmill and was being coached by Joe and Iris to go faster than his current crawl when he was hit by another vision on what Zoom had done to him. He cringed and fell onto the treadmill and shot back onto the floor. Joe and Iris ran into the room to see if Barry was alright. He managed to get himself up without their help, but he was holding onto his back and had to find a way to comfortably lean forward and talk to them.

"I'm okay. Just gonna go laid down for a bit. Got so much going on in my head, I just need a minute." Barry stated. "You wouldn't understand."

"No we wouldn't. Not when you won't talk to us." Iris said before leaving.

That left him and Joe sitting there to talk, but Barry wasn't really looking forward to a conversation. He really just wanted to go lay down.

"I'm sorry Joe. We can talk later. I'm just gonna…"

He grabbed the cane and motioned to leaving before turning and walked out the door.

After the scare with Grodd and the realization that he really needed to get his speed back, Barry forced himself to face the treadmill once more and attempted to get back up to where his speed had once been, but he couldn't do it. He was a mix of psychologically damaged and physically. He stopped the machine to get his breath back and almost jumped when he heard his father's voice. He was so happy to see the man he almost fell from the treadmill, but his dad was there to catch him and wrapped him in a hug.

"Dad…"

Henry took a moment to look over Barry's x-rays, but couldn't find anything physically wrong and told Barry as much. The two caught up on small talk, but the fact Catlin was still out there and being held prisoner by Grodd was still an issue. When all was said and done, they had not only managed to get Catlin back, they gave Grodd what he wanted, but most importantly, Barry was back as the Flash.

 **Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading. Until next time...**


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